A Perfect Mate
by DarkPoisonousLove
Summary: Griffin and Valtor are playing chess but one game seems insufficient to hold their attention so they decide to indulge in something more, a bet on the side that promises a sweet reward to the one that manages to defeat their mate. Has control ever been more of an issue for them? Part 3 of "Sparks of Life" but is set before the first two parts.


**A/N: ****Probably requires some basic understanding of chess pieces and their organization on the board for optimal reading experience.**

Griffin's hand was resting on the small table next to the chess board–there was barely enough space left for a cup of tea when they were playing but that was okay because Griffin didn't even drink tea when they were in the middle of a game–her fingers almost pressed into it. She was keeping them still but he could tell her mind was racing as she was calculating her next move. Or rather, her next dozen of moves. It was useless, though.

He'd already accounted for all the possible scenarios and was pretty confident in his victory even if they were still far from the end of the game. He could see every twist and turn that he'd lead them through since she'd let him play with the white pieces. It had been her first mistake.

Griffin moved her queen to the position he'd least expected her to. She could trade it for a knight or just sacrifice it to get his rook out of her part of the board but she chose to capture his pawn instead, leaving her queen right in the path of his bishop, ready for the taking. It could be some sort of gambit on her part, but her queen was lost anyway, and he was only more certain of that when he played out all the scenarios in his head again. There was nothing she could do to save it–she couldn't even justify the move she'd just made–or herself.

"Did you realize that you might as well just wave the white flag now since you won't be winning this game?" Griffin asked, startling him out of his smug thoughts.

He looked up at her to find her smirking at him, her eyes sparkling victoriously and the self-assuredness of her voice still lingering around her in the air. She looked beautiful, making him want to reach for her and pull her into a kiss when he had to be offended by her words.

"Really?" he said, focusing his attention on the board and the banter. She was just trying to distract him by making him think she had something planned when her words were the only card she had left up her sleeve. "Because to me it seems like you're the one in need of a white flag here," he said as he reached for his bishop. "I have you cornered," he took her queen off the board, his eyes meeting hers when the piece was tightly grasped in his hand, and she met his gaze head on, with a challenge in her eyes that was in character but not in her capabilities to back up, "like a lion catching up to a gazelle," he said as he left the black queen in his right corner of the table, Griffin's eyes following the path of the symbol of her power he'd just taken away. For without her queen she was on her way to getting overpowered and turned just as helpless as he'd described her to be to get a reaction out of her. She wasn't the only one who could use words as weapons, but the difference was that he wasn't running out of options on the board.

"Are you going to eat me?" she asked, her eyes locked with his once again to let him read clearly what exactly she was putting in the words if the way she drawled them out, doing everything in her power to draw his attention to her mouth hadn't made it obvious enough.

"I'd love to," he said as he let his hand find the black queen again and his fingers slid slowly over the wood, stroking it lazily, and even though her gaze never left his–she would never back down from a challenge–he knew she'd seen it. And he knew the movement had reached the right parts of her mind, pulling forward memories of just exactly how good it had felt when it had been her he'd been using his touch on, when he saw the hitch in her breathing. It was subtle but not enough to escape his notice since he was watching her like a hawk.

"Well then," Griffin said, looking down to make her move, her fingers gliding down the side of her own bishop and then back up before closing around it as she moved it to capture another one of his pawns, "I am benevolent enough to give you a chance to earn yourself an opportunity to do so," she said, playing with the pawn and twirling it between her fingers but his whole attention was focused on her lips from where the brazen words had fallen.

"What do you have in mind?" he asked as he redirected his gaze to the board even if his focus wasn't on it. And he had to concentrate on the game but he couldn't when he had to make her pay for the insolence to oppose his clear advantage over her. He didn't want to let her know what effect her mind games were having on him, though, so he made the move he'd considered for that scenario without giving it much additional thought now. His strategy was solid enough to carry him through her attempts to sway him.

"A little bet on the side," Griffin said innocently as her fingers snatched yet another one of his pawns away, leaving him with only half of their initial count. Most of his other pieces were still on the board, though, where they could carry out the plan that would bring her down. He was missing a bishop and a rook but she didn't have a knight and her queen so that didn't bother him. "The loser will have to do as his queen pleases for the rest of the night," she said as she lined up the pawns like a guard behind which she stored what she'd captured from his artillery. It made for a nice little display. Emphasis on the little.

"You mean this queen?" he asked as he once more picked up the black chess piece she seemed to forget was now in his possession. He didn't mind the opportunity to have her at his beck and call for the whole night, though. He was sure he could make her drop the composed look she was meeting his words with currently and have her beg to be the one in his hands. "I will take your bet, though," he said as he set down the queen and picked up his own knight to threaten her bishop that had just captured his pawn, setting up the next part of his sentence, "but on condition that every time someone loses a piece, they need to reveal some more skin that was covered before," he said smugly, watching the blankness take over her face as she let down the curtain on her emotions so that she could think his suggestion through. He knew she would accept since it was him who controlled the game and he wanted her to accept. "Whoever loses," meaning her, "strips all of their remaining clothes as their first action after getting up from their chair." He would enjoy the striptease as well as his victory and her service for the rest of the night.

"I'm in," Griffin said, just like he'd known she would and backed up her bishop with her knight, letting him decide whether to trade. There was no way her pride would let her back down from the game she'd started even if she wanted to and she didn't seem like she did. She looked eager to be at his mercy for the rest of the night and he couldn't stop himself from appreciating that, the images of what he'd do to her flashing in his mind even though it was the chessboard that was in front of his eyes. The chessboard and Griffin's cleavage that was concealed from the scarf she was, untypically for her, wearing.

"I'll bring you down to your knees," Valtor said as he leaned forward and knocked her bishop out of the way with his knight, holding her gaze as he did so, her composure at the face of his brutish action and his carefully considered words driving him insane. He could feel himself getting hard at the thought of making her lips part so that he could push his erection between them instead of having them pressed together in purposeful indifference. "I'm not seeing more skin," he urged her to follow the rules of their bet as he grabbed her bishop and set it next to her queen, focusing on his advantage and using it to its fullest, refusing to be the one who'd set himself up for failure. He would have her on her knees and sucking him off when he won and he wouldn't let the fantasies get in his way when it came to making her bend to his will.

Griffin held up her left hand in front of her face and took off the wedding band she was wearing on her finger, reaching over the table and dropping it around the bishop he'd taken as if to reclaim her possession over it while she denied his power over her, nearly making his jaw drop at her audacity but he cut himself short. He still scowled at her, though, unable to get over the shock that she'd outsmarted his rules like that, through their own marriage. He would have to make her pay for that too later. Considering he couldn't deny her anything any other time, it would be a shame to miss the opportunity to deny her all night long.

"You look disturbed," she said as she reached for his knight, "my white knight in shining armor." The grin broke out on her face as she put the new chess piece behind the wall of pawns she'd built, her own knight taking its place on the board which meant he had to show some skin himself.

He could copy what she'd done but they both knew he wouldn't. He would rather die than kill his own pride in such an ugly, tasteless manner. So undressing it was.

He opened two buttons of his shirt to spite her and then took one of her pawns in pure fit of pettiness, deviating from his plan, but he had to take the risk. He couldn't let her make a fool out of him by finding loopholes like that. And now that the wedding band was already off she would have to reveal some skin herself.

Griffin took off her scarf, giving him perfect view of her cleavage that would just get more exposed to him as he continued to win the game, and tied it around his wrist which he allowed to humor her and because he could count taking it off as paying his chips later on. "This is just one of many promises for later," Griffin said, her voice reminding him of a hunting lioness. It was quiet and prowling deeper into his mind which made it all the more dangerous.

The look in her eyes made him feel like he was a meal on a platter she was just waiting to sink her teeth into and he did his best to focus on the game. He'd deviated from his strategy and had to come up with a new one which was a bit of an issue as thinking got progressively harder the more skin Griffin was showing.

Defying his expectations, she unbuttoned her whole shirt at once, giving him a VIP view of her bra underneath. And the lace wasn't doing much to hide her breasts from his hungry gaze while it was definitely doing a much better job at keeping him from gathering his thoughts enough to follow her moves as well as his. And Griffin sliding off one of the straps down her shoulder when he captured her rook definitely wasn't helping.

She got her king out in the open where the opportunities for check were more but those for a mate were less when she had her excellent maneuvering to back up her crazy strategy. All her pieces were moving around as if pulled by strings controlled by her mind and she always knew what was where as if it was all a part of a well oiled machine that she'd constructed. All the black pieces worked together while his–while more in number and power–were scattered all over the board when his game was as disjointed as his thoughts. He was spending more time staring mindlessly at her skin that was just inviting him to fall into its softness than he was at planning his moves and Griffin was evading his poor attempts at cornering her again, letting him know just how big of a mistake he'd made when he'd deviated from course just to get back at her. She hadn't needed to play him when he'd played himself.

"You seem deep in thought," Griffin's voice caressed his ears just before he felt her foot brushing against his calf. She gave him a knowing smirk when he looked at her and it didn't even leave her face when he caught her ankle and pulled her foot in his lap–he could run his fingers over her skin now and distract her instead of being distracted–causing her whole body to move forward in her chair. "Don't worry, you'll get to feel my skin all night long," she said, absolutely unfazed by the patterns he was drawing on her skin, as if his touch had no effect on her and that only affected him instead.

"Something we can agree on," he said, keeping up the facade even if he didn't feel sure in himself at all anymore. He couldn't admit that he'd made a mistake since that would be even worse than losing. And it didn't matter that Griffin knew as she was looking at him like she could read his soul while all he was reading in her was the smugness wrapped around her and protecting her from any possible chill of the air or shiver from his caresses.

She still moaned when his fingers pressed a little harder in her calf, though, on purpose just to feel him tense as the sound traveled all the way through his body only to reach his erection and make it painfully hard. She knew just how far gone he was and he was in real trouble.

His suspicions were only confirmed when one of her pawns made it all the way through the board and to the very last line of his territory so she could turn it into whatever piece she wanted. And it was clear to him now that he'd never had her queen no matter what he'd thought. She'd been controlling the game the entire time and he'd fallen for her trap, letting her weave it around him deftly with the image of her loss she'd tempted him with. When she'd had everything she'd needed to bring _him_ down.

Griffin grabbed the rook he'd taken and placed it on the board which also meant check and mate for her since his king was still lined up behind the last three remaining pawns he had. She'd even given him a clue as to what she was planning on doing when she'd organized the white pieces she'd captured in much the same fashion.

"You don't need a queen when you are one," Griffin said as she leaned on the table on her elbows, the victory that had only been in her eyes before now unfolding around them and wrapping him in the realization that he was hers for the night, at her mercy, just like he'd been from the very start but he'd been too sure of himself to see it. And perhaps a bit too consumed in the yearning to touch her skin and have her follow his every whim. "Off with his clothes," Griffin said as she reached over the board and knocked his king off of it, the sound of it hitting the table punishing his ears for not listening more carefully earlier when she'd warned him of what his fate would be.

He got up and undid the last buttons of his shirt that were just barely keeping it closed, trying not to sulk and sully her enjoyment of the show. She'd won her victory and he didn't want to be a sore loser. After all, she'd promised he would get to feel her skin all through the night so he couldn't really say he was in need of pity. He would get much, much more than an actual loser would. And he'd have other chances to have her bend to his will. Ones she would give him willingly.

He threw the shirt on the chair and moved to make quick work of his pants, feeling the anticipation resurface in him again. And the faster he undressed himself, the faster he would get to undress her. Not to mention that her hungry gaze on him was only making him want to be naked for her appreciation even more since she looked like she couldn't wait to taste his skin, and he had to admit he was quite impatient himself. Getting to feel her all over his body would be the perfect way to get over his loss. Even if she was thinking of torturing him first. It would be the sweet kind.

Griffin got up from her chair only when he was completely exposed to her gaze, her eyes trained on him and moving all over his body, caressing him even with the space between them. She took her wedding band and put it on before grabbing the scarf that he'd wrapped around the bases of the chess pieces he'd taken from her, making them all fall to the floor and scatter around but she didn't pay them any mind.

She moved over to him and wrapped the scarf around his neck, making the knot just tight enough to interfere with his normal breathing but still leave him more than enough oxygen to breathe. "I told you it was a promise for later," she said as she cupped his cheek gently before crashing her lips on his with the force of a lioness sinking its claws into its prey, and all he could do was hold on to her as he let himself be devoured.


End file.
